Difference in expansion and dehydration behaviors between NH- and K-montmorillonite

Kawakita, Ryohei  ; Saito, Akito*; Sakuma, Hiroshi*; Anraku, Sohtaro ; Kikuchi, Ryosuke*; Otake, Tsubasa*; Sato, Tsutomu*

Montmorillonite (Mt) expansion and swelling are key factors for barrier performance of bentonite in trans-uranic (TRU) and high-level radioactive waste disposals. In the case of co-located geological disposal of TRU waste with high level waste, ammonium ion (NH) which is changed from nitrate ion leached from TRU waste has possibility to contact with bentonite, exchange interlayer cation of Mt to form NH-Mt, and deteriorate its performance. Because of similar hydration energy of NH to K, NH-Mt could have lower expandability or change to non-expandable mineral as reported on K-Mt. Therefore, expansion and alteration behaviors of NH-Mt, especially comparison to the behaviors of K-Mt, are necessary to understand for safety assessment of the waste disposal. In this study, the hydration behavior of NH-Mt was investigated by XRD and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation in comparison with K-Mt. XRD profiles under Relative Humidity (RH) control showed that expansion of NH-Mt was similar to that of K-Mt at more than RH40% with slightly different d-values. However, expansion of NH-Mt kept at lower than RH20%, while K-Mt easily dehydrate at the same RH. MD simulation revealed that hydrogen bonding (HB) in NH molecules causes the difference in hydration behavior between NH- and K-Mt, as HB cause larger basal spacing at dehydrated state and easier hydration. This gap on hydration may attribute the difference in alteration to non-expandable minerals after dehydration, indicating that NH have lower possibility for alternation and smaller effect on barrier performance of bentonite than K.